Why do humans like jazz?

[amper42]

Jazz has so many subgenres that I am unsure how to compare. Is big band music jazz? Free form jazz is certainly not my cup of tea, but big band music from its heyday and modern compositions for big bands are great. I had quite a few Sonny Rollins and Grover Washington Jr. LPs back in the 80s that included both more traditional jazz and covers of pop tunes. I absolutely love Cal Tjader...

Big Band Jazz is definitely Jazz. The best high schools and colleges all had them as I was growing up. It was my first real intro to Jazz as a youth. Maynard Ferguson, Buddie Rich, Stan Kenton were all fantastic jazz concerts.

 

[Barrelhouse Solly]

For those who are interested, here's a link to several jazz standards based on the chords to "I Got Rhythm." Note that "Lester Leaps In" is from the 1930s. https://www.learnjazzstandards.com/blog/learning-jazz/9-rhythm-changes-heads-learn/

 

[sejarzo]

I'm a big jazz listener, but I don't really understand the question. Jazz hardly has a monopoly on dissonance of any sort, or rhythm patterns. Why do humans like any kind of music?

The director of our son's high school band program is a huge Beatles fan, and said their popularity was likely due to them using different chord structures that introduced new dissonances to pop music.

I have only heard one Chinese group perform traditional music...I only recall the erhu specifically among the instruments used...and all of it involved dissonances that were both odd and not resolved in the way one would expect from Western music.

 

[sejarzo]

Big Band Jazz is definitely Jazz. The best high schools and colleges all had them as I was growing up. It was my first real intro to Jazz as a youth. Maynard Ferguson, Buddie Rich, Stan Kenton were all fantastic jazz concerts.

Saw both Maynard and Buddy in small venues. LOUD and wonderful.

 

[audiogeek]

I watched the OP video last month on the Jazz for Aficionados thread over at Audiogon. I found it interesting. Jazz is my favorite music and I have close to 700 jazz CDs including approximately 50 SACDs/DVD Audio.

The Audiogon JFA thread is still going strong 10 years on even though the OP author has passed on as have so many of the legends of jazz from Donald Byrd in 2013 to Ahmad Jamal last week.

Audiogon Discussion Forum

Jazz for aficionados I'm going to review records in my collection, and you'll be able to decide if they're worthy of your collection. These records are ...

forum.audiogon.com

Miles Davis' 1959 KOB and Coltrane's 1964 A Love Supreme are two albums that every jazz aficionado has in there collection as well as Mingus Ah Um, Jazz live at Massy Hall 1953 (Parker. Gillespie, Powel, Mingus and Roach)

Jazz at Massey Hall - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I listen to jazz (and other genres) 8 - 12 hours per day driving my tractor trailer.... leaving now a 3am driving a load from Lon Island NY to Latham NY (Albany area)

 

[Burning Sounds]

I would love to love Jazz.

What is the best way to get into it? (ignoring live events - little jazz round here)

I was in the same place about 8 years ago...wanting to like jazz, but just not getting it.

Miles Davis' Bitches Brew was the album that got me into jazz. Some jazz purists will argue it's not really jazz, but it took me along for the ride. E.S.T is another band that took me along the road from rock to jazz.

Ibrahim Maalouf is a sensational jazz tumpeter that epitomises the broad church that is jazz. I saw him live at the Sage, Gateshead a few years ago - outstanding concert.

I belong to a local jazz club and we are all ancient. Look at the age of Maalouf's audience in this concert - jazz still has a future, no doubt.

Hope this helps get you there.

 

[Capitol C]

May as well ask why classical and opera have fallen further out of favor?

From a brief look at the internet, it appears that jazz is only slightly ahead of classical in popularity--if one is out of favor, arguably the other is. More to the point, perhaps, is why more complex musical forms are enjoyed by such a small fraction of people? I have a possible explanation, but unfortunately the explanation is not in keeping with current politics, so I'll keep it to myself.

 

[ahofer]

I have a possible explanation, but unfortunately the explanation is not in keeping with current politics, so I'll keep it to myself.

Curiosity piqued.

 

[computer-audiophile]

Comedian Bob Hope was, as many of all y'all may know, a) born in England and b) given the name Leslie Townes Hope. He quipped that, since schoolchildren were addressed last name first, he changed his given name to "Bob" because he didn't want to be known as Hopelessly.

Flashback: I had this very tape recorder in the sixties, but in stereo, a higher case with two of this tube amplifier inserts with the big VU-meter. It almost killed me, I'll never forget, because I once accidentally came into contact with the anode voltage. Besides, it was a portable unit, but it was so heavy that you could think it was made of solid iron.

 

[Capitol C]

From a brief look at the internet, it appears that jazz is only slightly ahead of classical in popularity--if one is out of favor, arguably the other is. More to the point, perhaps, is why more complex musical forms are enjoyed by such a small fraction of people? I have a possible explanation, but unfortunately the explanation is not in keeping with current politics, so I'll keep it to myself.

By the way, the video was excellent. I cringe whenever I hear someone mention entropy, but in this case, Physics for the Birds knows his physics and his information theory.

 

[computer-audiophile]

You don't know what a Leslie is?
Yes, Hammonds (B3s in particular) and Leslies do go together.

View attachment 281445

Jerry Garcia's vocal on the (otherwise? ) beautiful song Rosemary from their third album, aoxomoxoa, was recorded through a Leslie.

In Germany, Barbara Dennerlein is famous as a Hammond organ player. I used to go to her concerts as well. My passion for jazz peaked in the early eighties, my first contact with jazz was in the sixties. I often went to Cave 54 in Heidelberg, Germany's oldest student jazz club, which still exists today. In the meantime, after pop, jazz is also through with me.

 

[computer-audiophile]

Sometimes I still like something in jazz, but I don't know exactly why that is. E.g. the other day it was Jamie Branch, who unfortunately passed away recently.

FLY or DIE II: bird dogs of paradise

Jaimie Branch - album - 2019 - 9 Songs

www.deezer.com

Favourite tracks:
- prayer for amerikkka pt. 1 & 2
- love song.

Unfortunately I was too late to buy the vinyl LP, I would have loved to have it.

 

[Adi777]

For improvisation, for the unknown, for the unpredictability - you never know what will happen around the corner. The best jazz for me is from 60 and 70, especially hard-bop, hard-bop with avant-garde touches and jazz-fusion - electric Davis and Hancock are geniuses, and Tony Williams of course, and much more bands.

 

[MattHooper]

I seem to be on a slightly different trajectory as I grow older, than others regarding jazz.

My father was a jazz musician and music teacher. I grew up hearing jazz and enjoying music more challenging than pop music - e.g. jazz/fusion, prog rock etc. (Though not to exclusion of popular music, dance music). Most of my friends played in jazz/fusion/prog bands (and I played a bit too).

I found that over time my tolerance for "wanking" waned. Which is strange because usually it's people unfamiliar with jazz and soloing who just hear "wanking" by the artist.

But I've come to appreciate higher levels of structure. A sort of basic example is how much I grew to dislike Melisma and Oversinging in general. I like the craft and talent that goes in to sculpting away excess, forcing one to find just the right note for a melody, rather than spring-boarding all over the place never landing on a note or stong line, which comes off to me like wanking. An extreme example in contrast would be something like Mariah Carey's singing, never finding a single note to love, vs the notoriously exacting melodies in ABBA, where the singers were just as talented, but whose vocal acrobatics were always strictly in service of hitting just the right note, serving the melody. (Not that anyone has to like either of those artists of course...just looking for an example).

So it's somewhat similar for jazz. I still actually love playing Jazz and have a number of jazz records. But it tends to be background for me, a vibe. I get antsy attempting to sit and listen to it. Whereas complex, but more structured and deliberate music, like prog, fusion etc tend to glue me to my seat. In fact I've recently discovered the new crop of "metal" music, which is more the modern day version of prog - which has imbibed math rock with prog rock and popular music flourishes.

The level of musicianship, at least on a technical level, can be insane. These guys are practice freaks and it's typical in performances that you see very little of the leaping around theatrics...just guys being pretty chill focusing just on their playing.

Polyphia is probably the most well known band in the genre, and has been accused of "going too commercial" but I find it a very approachable version of the style:

(Their music is an unbelievable work out for any audio system! Same with lots of this music).

Another example, Animals As Leaders:

Plini goes for a bit more traditional soaring, melodic sound, but with some of the same technical flourishes:

 

[fpitas]

I'm suspecting the OP is an AI trying to learn more about us.

/Not paranoid

 

[computer-audiophile]

Oh, I forgot, I also took jazz guitar lessons once. But it's not my greatest talent, apart from the fact that I always like to practice different cultural techniques. But I still have a few nice guitars here that are decoratively standing around in the apartment.

 

[notsodeadlizard]

This is a very strange question.
People like different things, the question "why" refers to nothing, just because.
We like it and that's it.
That's the way we are, people.

 

[MattHooper]

This is a very strange question.
People like different things, the question "why" refers to nothing, just because.
We like it and that's it.
That's the way we are, people.

Yet the exploration in the video, which arises from this very question, is far more interesting and informative than the answer you have given.

Asking questions...even ones that seem on the surface obvious to some people, is a good thing.

 

[TheBatsEar]

People like Jazz because ... it's fun.
As proof I submit the most popular song of the Dave Brubeck Timetravel Quartett:

 

[prerich]

A Hammond C-3 with the Leslie speaker is hard to beat....

B-3 with two Leslie......ol' church boy here!!!